Defence Business Services (DBS) DBS OCI Cloud Architect


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Details

Reference number

329693

Salary

£43,080 – £54,480
per annum (pro rata) – This post is eligible for a Digital Skills Allowance of up to £11,400 per annum
A
Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job grade

Senior Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

MOD – Head Office & Corporate Services – DBS DIT –

Digital, Information, Technology – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Type of role

Architecture and Data

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

Norcross – Tomlinson House Tomlinson House Norcross Blackpool Lancashire

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

  • Our Vision – To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
  • Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Come and join the DBS community today!

If Norcross – DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the Northwest, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026. 

Job description

You will join a team in DBS Digital, Information and Technology (DIT) responsible for exploiting and administering the DBS Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform, in support of Civilian People business needs. Working closely with cloud engineers, solution architects, business analysts and the wider Civilian People Change Delivery Services, your focus will be on designing and improving the OCI platform to enable DBS to provide its Civilian People services. This includes support to the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technologies facilitating the Oracle HCM Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) HR, Payroll and Expenses system MyHR.

Role Specific Accountabilities

  • Implement the OCI Design process across CDS Civ Pers
    • Adherence to Enterprise Architecture Principles,
    • OCI Design and Technical Assurance,
    • Security Assurance,
  • Inform the technology roadmap to achieve the desired future state architecture and drive forward transformational technology initiatives, following a cloud-first strategy
  • Create OCI design documents across all phases of the solution delivery lifecycle
  • Ensure the correct accreditation and security assurance is delivered for projects and systems
  • Ensure that CDS Civ Pers activities comply with agreed quality standards and adheres to contractual, MOD and legislative requirements
  • Act as a gatekeeper for OCI change and improvement, leading on investigation and options analysis, ensuring alignment with DBS digital strategy and engaging with solution architects and cloud engineers as appropriate

Role Specific Responsibilities
 

  • Ensure that cloud solutions are interoperable, reusable and align with Government Digital Strategy
  • Create baseline (‘as is’) and target (‘to be’) OCI architectures, ensuring designs and diagrams are kept up to date and gaps are articulated as technical requirements
  • Provide technical oversight to projects and BAU Change Requests, ensuring proposed cloud solutions are technically feasible, supportable and secure
  • Lead on creation of proof of concepts to investigate improvements in OCI environments – e.g. containerisation, DevOps pipeline, automated anti-virus for patching 
  • Identify opportunities for technology led business transformation to provide business benefit, including innovation or automation.  
  • Embrace and adhere to the Enterprise Architecture principles, standards, policies and solution governance for DBS by engaging in the Technical Design Authority (TDA) process
  • Understand the business goals and drivers of DBS and recognise these in all technology planning activities
  • Ensure security policies and procedures are in place during the development of applications and systems

Person specification

You will have an interest in technology and be proactive in identifying opportunities to improve the way DBS DIT meets the needs of its customers. 
 
Strong written and oral communication skills:

  • Proactive and confident in engagement with business stakeholders, customers and technical colleagues 
  • Can clearly articulate recommendations in writing
  • Can lead and focus meetings with a diverse range of stakeholders
  • Able to persuade stakeholders to embrace recommendations where appropriate, whilst respecting their views and decisions

Technical understanding:

  • Able to convey technical information to non-technical stakeholders and confirm understanding of risks, issues and benefits
  • You will have an interest in technology and be proactive in identifying opportunities to improve the way DBS DIT meets the needs of its customers
  • Working knowledge of common infrastructure technologies, preferably in a cloud hosting environment: Linux Administration, Windows Server Administration, Network Administration, Database Administration or working knowledge of OCI technologies such as VCNs, subnets, Compartments, Identity Domains, Availability Domains, Fault Domains
  • Awareness of cloud hosting models and the responsibility split between hosting provider and customer for SaaS, PaaS and IaaS

Desirable criteria:

  • Previous experience in Technical or Cloud Architecture
  • OCI Cloud Architect certification (the successful candidate can obtain this in-role if not)

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

  • Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect) – Level: Senior technical architect
  • Turning business problems into technical design – Level: Senior technical architect
  • Understanding the whole context – Level: Senior technical architect
  • Governance and Assurance – Level: Senior technical architect
Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes
£11,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
  • An environment with flexible working options Monday-Friday
  • 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service (pro rata). In additional to 8 public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for HM The Sovereign’s birthday
  • Hybrid working where role permits
  • An opportunity to be considered for Reward and Recognition – £250-£5000 per year
  • Family-friendly policies including – parental leave and adoption leave
  • Learning and development tailored to your role
  • Professional and personal development of skills
  • A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
  • Minimum of 15 days special leave in a rolling 12 month period for volunteer reserve commitments
  • Special paid leave to volunteer up to 6 days per year
  • A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Allowances

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

This post is eligible for a Digital Skills Allowance of up to £11,400 per annum. Eligibility for this allowance will be assessed at interview against the 4 core technical skills only and reviewed annually in line with departmental policy. 

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the folowing success profile elements:

Primary: Technical – Senior technical architect – Turning business problems into technical design

Secondary: Experience – CV

In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At the application stage you will be assessed against the following:

  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Turning business problems into technical design
  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Understanding the whole context
  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Governance and Assurance
  • Experience – CV
  • Experience – Personal statement

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

Those that pass the minimum score criteria will then be invited to Interview 2 where you will be assessed on the following for the application and the Digital Skills Allowance Assessment:

  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Turning business problems into technical design
  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Understanding the whole context
  • Technical – Senior technical architect – Governance and Assurance

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

  • 1 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Turning business problems into technical design
  • 2 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
  • 3 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Understanding the whole context
  • 4 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Governance and Assurance
  • 5 – Experience – Personal statement
  • 6 – Behaviour – Changing and Improving
  • 7 – Behaviour – Seeing the Big Picture

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

  • 1 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Turning business problems into technical design
  • 2 – Experience – CV
  • 3 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
  • 4 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Understanding the whole context
  • 5 – Technical – Senior technical architect – Governance and Assurance
  • 6 – Experience – Personal statement

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. 

Application sifting to take place on: 09/01/2024

Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams

Interviews will be conducted week commencing: 22/01/2024

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.

We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

To assist with your application please find attached –  

DBS Candidate Information Guide – Working for Defence Business Services – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

Technical skills Framework guide – https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/index.html

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals
  • nationals of the Republic of Ireland
  • nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
  • individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
  • Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available.
You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

  • Name : Joe Blowen
  • Email : joe.blowen100@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

  • Email : DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@MOD.gov.uk in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/

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